Posted on by David Steers

Visit to six churches in Belfast and county Down

Between 7th and 9th May, Dunmurry congregation was visited by four Unitarian ministers from Great Britain. These included Rev Laura Dobson, minister at Chorlton, Rev Mária Pap, minister at Mansfield, Francis Elliot-Wright, student minister at Knutsford, and Rev Jim Corrigall, the London District Minister. On the evening of Tuesday, 7th May Dunmurry congregation welcomed them, plus members of other congregations and a good number of local ministers, to a social evening in the McCleery Hall. I conducted an interview/dialogue with Jim who told us about his role as London District Minister, growing up in South Africa and his anti-apartheid activities, his decades as a journalist around the world which took him to Northern Ireland among other places, as well as the theological reflections which led him eventually to enter the ministry. As part of the evening Jim shared with us the reading that means most to him in his ministry – ‘God’s Grandeur’ by Gerard Manley Hopkins – and we listened to his favourite piece of music –  Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika, God Bless Africa. It was a great night enjoyed by everyone.

Left to right Rev Dr David Steers, Rev Mária Pap, Rev Lynda Kane, Rev Laura Dobson, Francis Elliot-Wright, Rev Jim Corrigall, Rev Stephen Reain Adair, Rev Brian Moodie in the McCleery Hall, Dunmurry.

On Wednesday morning we made an early start in the company of a group of members of Dunmurry and First Church to visit six churches in Belfast and county Down and learn something about their history and witness. Thanks to Gary Douds we were taken around the churches in a minibus in great comfort and we were also blessed with fantastic weather.

Some of the party at Dunmurry, ready to set off at 9.00 am.
Laura, Jim, Francis and Mária visit the grave of Rev Alexander Gordon (Principal of the Unitarian Home Missionary College) at Dunmurry.
Outside Rademon later in the day.

In most of the churches I said something about the building and the history of the congregation and in Rademon Jim Ferris shared his historical expertise to give us a talk about his congregation. Our thanks go to all the ministers and members who welcomed us in our travels including Des McKeown, Rev Chris Hudson, Rev Dr Heather Walker, Mary Stewart and David Rooney, as well as Jim Ferris.

Des McKeown welcomes everyone to First Church, Rosemary Street.
Rev Chris Hudson welcomes everyone in the chancel in All Souls’.

We had lunch in Denvir’s in Downpatrick and returned to Dunmurry just 15 minutes later than our planned schedule had anticipated, so all in all a great day out.

In Downpatrick.
Jim Ferris explains the history of Rademon.

We visited in turn Dunmurry (1779), First Belfast (1783), All Souls’ Belfast (1896), Rademon (1713), Downpatrick (1711) and Clough (1837), buildings of different styles and ages but all with their own story to tell as part of our distinctive tradition.

In Clough, the last visit of the day.
Posted on by David Steers

Postcard from Dunmurry: Then and Now (a different view)

Back in January 2023 I posted a piece about a postcard of Dunmurry which showed the classic view of the church built in 1779. It was published in Lisburn by F.W. Harding and posted in November 1906. This is the picture:

and you can read about it by clicking here.

As I mention in that post, postcards of Non-Subscribing Presbyterian churches are not that common. I have seen the 1906 view before and there is also a much later one but I was pleased to discover another postcard featuring the church, this one new to me:

This dates from a little later and although it is taken from a less popular vantage point in many ways it gives a much clearer view of the building. This card was published locally by ‘W. McCartney, Stationer and Tobacconist, Dunmurry’ in the ‘Signal Series’. It has at the bottom left hand corner the title ‘Unitarian Church, Dunmurry’ and was never posted. On the back, however, it is dated May 19th 1919 and has a message to an unnamed recipient which reads ‘With best wishes for your welfare from the People of Dunmurry and district from W. Laursen’. The name is actually a bit hard to make out but that is my best guess.

In a way it is a clearer picture than the 1906 view, being a Real Photograph, if a little damaged. But the view is not obscured by trees and you can clearly see the large amount of ivy that was then being allowed to grow over the left hand door. This is actually also present on the 1906 view although it is hard to make out behind the tree.

A modern image from more or less the same angle, taken a couple of weeks ago, shows the same view:

The view of the church hasn’t changed between 1919 and 2024. There are now houses along the side which weren’t there but the splendid building of 1779 is reassuringly the same.

Posted on by David Steers

Reflections on Prayer

I added this short video to our YouTube channel featuring the church and some of the grounds at Dunmurry built around a short passage on prayer written by Valentine David Davis. V.D. Davis trained for the ministry at Manchester College when it was still in London and James Martineau was Principal. He was one of the last links between that generation of ministers and the mid-twentieth century. His little book The Lord’s Prayer An Interpretation. Together with an Address on The Offering of Prayer was published by the Lindsey Press in 1938.

Click on the video to see ‘Reflections on Prayer’ from Dunmurry

His book on prayer is full of insight. He is perhaps someone who is rather overlooked in our history. On leaving Manchester College he went to Christ Church, Nottingham as minister for a few years before moving on to the Ancient Chapel of Toxteth for eleven years. This was followed by a further ministry at Wallasey. In Merseyside he was greatly influenced by John Hamilton Thom whose devotional Services and Prayers he later edited along with a selection of J.H. Thom’s writings in a A Minister of God. Ministry in Liverpool and Wallasey was followed by eleven years as editor of The Inquirer before returning to the ministry in Bournemouth where he served for twenty years up to retirement. He made some more important contributions to devotional publishing and to history, producing A Book of Daily Strength as well as A History of Manchester College and a history of the London Domestic Mission Society. He was editor also of Hymns of Worship, first published in 1927, reprinted a number of times, then republished with a Supplement (1951), and later still republished in a revised format in 1962. Even Hymns of Faith and Freedom, published in 1991, described itself as a radical revision of Hymns of Worship. So as one of the first fruits of the collaboration that led to the new General Assembly and ‘offered, in the interest of unity and comprehension, with the prayer that it may be blessed in its ministry to the fellowship of our churches’ it proved remarkably successful.

We also uploaded to YouTube our full Easter Day service at Dunmurry recently. The full service, including hymns, prayers and readings can be seen here:

Easter Sunday Service, Dunmurry

Posted on by David Steers

General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches 2024

I was very pleased to be able to attend this year’s General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches held in Daventry. There were many stand out moments. One was the Unitarian Christian Association meeting at which Dr Lizzie Kingston Harrison gave an excellent talk entitled Joseph Priestley: radical roots and new beginnings. A wonderful presentation which showed how professional historical research can be alive with reflections for our present age in the hands of an expert. We look forward to publishing Lizzie’s paper in a future issue of Faith and Freedom.

The meetings were notable also for the large contingent of seven Non-Subscribing Presbyterians from Northern Ireland who were also able to be there for the welcoming onto the GA Roll of the Rev Lynda Kane. Now the minister of Ballyclare, Cairncastle and Ballymoney, Lynda was one of three new ministers recognised at the General Assembly Service.

Rev Lynda Kane with some of the ministers from Northern Ireland present at the GA (Photo: Sue Steers)
Rev Rory Castle Jones, Rev Lynda Kane, Rev Ant Howe, new ministers Rev Arek Malecki and Rev Jennifer Sanders, Liz Slade, Rev Melda Grantham and GA President Vince McCully, after the GA Service. (Photo: Sue Steers).

The Rev Ant Howe delivered a most inspiring sermon at the GA Service, and at the meetings Dot Hewerdine and the Rev John Midgley and the Rev Celia Midgely were all made honorary members of the GA.

We also held the annual meeting of the Unitarian Historical Society. There was a good turnout of people for the AGM and to hear Professor Grayson Ditchfield’s paper Essex Street Chapel in the Later Eighteenth Century. Unfortunately, because of disruption to the train services, Professor Ditchfield couldn’t be with us in person, and so his excellent paper was read for us by Rev Daniel Costley. There was a great deal of new information and new insight in the paper which will feature in next year’s Transactions of the Unitarian Historical Society.

Derek McAuley (President), Howard Hague (Secretary) with Rev Daniel Costley (left), who read Professor Ditchfield’s paper, at the meeting of the Unitarian Historical Society in Daventry. Saturday, 6th April.
Posted on by David Steers

Christmas Morning

On Christmas Eve, 2023, we held an excellent congregational Carol Service in Dunmurry. Below you can join the service via this video:

Excerpt from Hymn on the Morning of Christ’s Nativity by John Milton (1629):

No war or battle sound

Was heard the world around:

The idle spear and shield were high uphung;

The hooked chariot stood

Unstained with hostile blood;

The trumpet spake not to the armed throng,

And kings sat still with awful eye,

As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.

But peaceful was the night

Wherein the Prince of Light

His reign of peace upon the earth began:

The winds with wonder whist

Smoothly the waters kissed,

Whispering new joys to the mild ocean,

Who now hath quite forgot to rave,

While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.

And here is a short video of a heron in Derriaghy Glen, not far from Dunmurry. Filmed recently by Louise Steers:

Posted on by David Steers

Carols by Candlelight at Dunmurry

Harmonic Sounds Concert Band performing at Dunmurry

On Friday, 15th December we were delighted to welcome to Dunmurry Harmonic Sounds Concert Band under their Musical Director, Paul Hamilton to lead us in our service of Carols by Candlelight. The Church was beautifully decorated, there was a great attendance and readings were given by members and friends of the congregation.

Click on the video above to share in the service.

Order of Service

Another recent video which is available to view online is the sermon delivered in Church on Sunday, 10th December 2023, the second Sunday in Advent:

Posted on by David Steers

Carols at Dunmurry

Every Christmas Carol has its own backstory but there is none more intricate and unusual than O Come, all ye faithful, which is also one of the most universally popular of all Carols.

Adeste Fidelis

Click on the video above to see the Reflections on ‘O Come, all ye faithful‘

Carols by Candlelight

At Dunmurry we are really looking forward to our Carols by Candlelight service on Friday, 15th December at 7.30 pm when we will welcome Harmonic Sounds Concert Band with their Director of Music, Paul Hamilton. We will tell the story of Christmas through traditional carols and the traditional Christmas readings given by church members and friends from other churches. Everyone is welcome.

Posted on by David Steers

At the start of Advent

Just as we approach the start of Advent we were delighted to welcome to Dunmurry the Choir of Malone Integrated College who, guided by their Head of Music, Mrs Mitchell, and teacher, Mr Lennox, sang a wonderfully varied programme of pieces in the McCleery Hall for our regular Thursday Warm Space Coffee Morning on 30th November.

Malone College Choir singing at Dunmurry

It was great having the Choir with us, they had also walked all the way from their school to the church on a very cold day. But everyone was really impressed by their achievements as a Choir and the evident joy and enthusiasm they brought to their music. You can see some of their performance in the McCleery Hall on the following video:

Click on the video to see the Choir perform at Dunmurry

We wish the Choir every success in the future. It was a real pleasure to be able to start our Christmas celebrations in the company of the Choir.

Another video recorded at Dunmurry recently features a prayer from Orders of Worship. You can see this short video by clicking on the image below:

A short Act of Prayer at Dunmurry
Posted on by David Steers

Caught on Film in 1897

Which of the churches in our tradition do you think was the first to be filmed? Well, there is good evidence that this distinction belongs to Dunmurry. Indeed First Dunmurry (Non-Subscribing) Presbyterian Church must be among the first of all churches to appear on film in Ireland.

The original manse which appears in the film when viewed from the level crossing which itself can be seen slightly right of centre underneath the rainbow

In 1897 the famous Lumière brothers came to Ireland, or to be more precise their cinematographer Alexandre Promio did. Among other places, he filmed in Belfast and filmed segments of the rail journey from Belfast to Dublin. One day in 1897, sometime between June and October of that year, he filmed the view from the train as it pulled out of Dunmurry station. You can see this film – Départ de Dunmurry – in the video below.

The film lasts only 37 seconds and seems to have been made on a bright, sunny, probably summer’s day. As the train starts to pull out of the station the viewer sees the area around Upper Dunmurry Lane which is very hard to recognise, most of the buildings are quite different today compared to the complex of mills that were visible then. At about 22 seconds, though, you can quite clearly see Glebe Road from the vantage point of the level crossing. The wall of the Church is immediately identifiable as it curves round towards the gate, behind it you can see the grave yard and then you can see the Church through the trees as the train picks up speed. This is followed by the edge of the old manse before the view is taken up with more trees until the vista spreads out to an open field.

This film was first shown at Gatti’s Music Hall on Westminster Bridge Road, London on 21st October 1897.

It is a real piece of history and it does evoke a strange emotion to see a moving image of a place so familiar to us but as it looked 126 years ago. Yet, there we are, as we looked in the year of the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Even then our Church was nearly 120 years old but caught in a fleeting glimpse as a steam train powers its way towards Lisburn. It is a reminder of the continuity of our witness and the unchanging core of our message set amidst an ever-changing world.

First Dunmurry, built in 1779, and possibly the first Church in Ireland to appear on film
Posted on by David Steers

Dunmurry Harvest

On Sunday, 8th October we celebrated our service of Harvest Thanksgiving at First Dunmurry. There was a good attendance and the church was beautifully decorated. The choir sang Great is thy faithfulness and the hymns included were Come, ye thankful people, come, All things bright and beautiful, Fountain of mercy, God of love and We plough the fields, and scatter.

The whole service can be viewed on the following video:

Click on the video to see the Harvest Service

The organist and choirmaster was Allen Yarr and the service was conducted by the minister, the Rev Dr David Steers.

All donations of tinned and dried food were given to the Foodbank and fruit and vegetables were donated to FareShare.